The Cathedral of Sant Mary the Virgin ( known in everyday
usage as Dome Church ) was established so long ago that the earliest
history of ancient building can be reconstructed on suppositions only. Obviously
it was soon after the Danish invasion in June 1219 that the first wooden
predecessor of the present church was built. Ten years later, in 1229,
a group of Dominican monks from Danish monastery of Ribe arrived in these
parts. Their aim was to found a new monastery on Toompea, north of the
fortress. They also commenced the building of a new stone church to
replace the existing wooden one. The new monastery that had only begun to
take shape perished in a violent conflict between the Danish vassals and
the monks of the Order of the Knights of Sword in 1233. Simultaneously the
existing church was denominated cathedral and dedicated to St. Mary the
Virgin.

The first stone church was obviously a rather modest rectangular
unvaulted building of the size of the present chancel. Its east wall was
straight and the north wall had a vestry attached to it. Poor as the
diocese of Tallinn was, the cathedral remained as modest as that till the
end of the 13th century. But, the reconstruction undertaken then was a
really far-reaching one and it was still in full swing in 1319. What was
built then was a wide and relatively short three- aisled main body to which
the former church was linked as chancel. The two were connected with a
wide triumphal arch. In order to adjust the former small church to its new
function, its straight eastern wall was replaced by a polygonal apse and
both the apse and the chancel were covered with high domical vault. The
corbels and all the other carved parts of the chancel were decorated with
naturalistic vegetal motifs of which we can nowadays see but firecrumbled
remains. A winding staircase was built into the thick western wall of the
nave. It took a small chapel in the same wall and a loft facing the
interior of the church above it. The latter is now closed with the organ.
The same staircase led to the one-time exterior oriel-type pulpit. The
main body was roofed over but obviously not vaulted. The whole process of
building seems to have been somewhat irregular due to economic
difficulties on that time. With certain reservation the vaulting of the
main body can be dated to the end of the 14th century when simpler
geometrical decor elements began to supersede the naturalistic vegetal
motifs that had prevailed in the architecture of Tallinn until then. The
new style has left a deep imprint on the carved parts of the cathedral's
vaulting. Work on the main body and the chapels surrounding it went on in
the 15th century. To this period belong the office room and the chapels on
the south side, St. George's Chapel on the north side and no longer
existing chapel at the northeastern corner of the main rectangle. The
monumental edifice still remained without a high western tower to typical
of Tallinn's parochial churches. Instead, a small tower was built in the
corner of the chancel and the south aisle. The lower part of it has
survived.

The beginning of the 16th century ushered in a period of great changes
in church life. The conversion of the lower town churches took place in
1524. The first wave of Reformation left the cathedral untouched and
the Catholic bishop retained his superior position until 1561. Then
the cathedral was reformed as well and changed into the main church
of the Lutheran diocese. In connection with the Reformation, certain
changes took place also in building traditions. The chapel that had
primarily been a room of worship now began to be used as burial place. In
the 16th and 17th centuries one such burial chapel was built to the east
of the main porch and another against the west wall of vestry. On the
first floor above the porch a room was built for the cathedral's library.
It has retained its initial function till the present day. In the course
of time the congregation members donated to the church a whole collection
of works of art and valuable fittings. All that was destroyed in the
tragic fire that broke out on June 6, 1684. The whole town of Toompea,
including the cathedral, burnt down.

The reconstruction of the old cathedral was begun at once after fire.
The fittings were ordered from the workshop of the noted woodcarver C.
Ackermann. It was the end of the 17th century that the reconstruction was
fully completed. The initial plan to combine the reconstruction work with
the erection of the still missing west tower had to be abandoned because
of the Great Northern War that broke out in 1700. It was only in 1778-79
that the tower was finally built. At the same time the interior of the
church was redecorated. The pulpit was moved to the northern jamb of the
triumphal arch, the present organ loft was built and the pews were
regrouped.

The interior of the Gothic building firmly belongs to Baroque. As pure
specimens of the style we could name the high altar (C. Ackermann, 1696),
the pulpit (C. Ackermann, 1686), the better part of the armorial epitaphs
(the richest epitaph collection in Estonia), the organ loft and part of
the pews. The period of Classicism has bequeathed the outstanding tomb
monument to S. Greigh and the obelisk to commemorate F. von Tiesenhausen.
The characteristic grandeur of Historicism is represented by the the organ
prospect (1878) and the tomb monument to A. von Krusenstern. Some Gothic
tomb plates and the artistically high-level Renaissance tomb chest
of P. de la Gardie have survived from the period before the great
fire. The interior is complemented by old battle banners and Baroque
chandeliers.

The old cathedral has an outstanding and venerable part to fulfill in
Lutheran church life today. All the religious leaders and priests are
consecrated and ordained here.

I

Choir

II

Body

III

Vestry

IV

Chapel of the Freiherr von Güldenbandt

V

St. Georges chapel

VI

The Fersen's sepulchral chapel

VII

Entrance Hall

VII

Chancery of congregation room

IX

Southwest chapel

1.

Nicolaes Millich Epitaph of Johan Hastfer
1676

2.

Box of the Mannteuffels 1750s

3.

Box of Patkuls 2nd quarter of the 18th
century

4.

Hermann Berents and Hinrik Martens Golgotha
gruop on the transverse
beam of the triumphal arch 1694

The history of the Dome congregation dates back to the time of the
foundation of the church. From the 13th century to the year 1710
was the Dome the bishop's church (episcope). Here the Reformation took place
in 1565, some decades later than in the Lower-Tallinn. There was no bishop in
Estonia from 1710 to 1832 and his duties were carried out by the supreme
priest of the church. From 1832 to 1917 the supreme priest was the super-intendent
of Estonia, both a Russian official and the Lutheran leader of Estonia. The
Estonian congregation left the church in the 19th century after the
foundation of the Kaarli (Carl's) congregation.

The Dome Church as the supreme church of Estonia has been inflicted by
rational Lutheranism, although it was strongly affected by German pietism in
the 18th century.

The bishopric institution was restituted in Estonia in 1919, when Jakob
Kukk was elected to be the first bishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran
Church. In 1923 the Dome Church was proclaimed bishopric and the bishop could
now hold the messes, no matter that the German congregation was the holder of
the church. March the 27th in 1927, when bishop made the German
congregation to leave the church, is the bitrthdate of the Estonian
congregation.